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Monthly Archives: February 2015

I am really looking forward to the environment we will find in Texas; green trees, grass, and lush plant life. But there is one aspect of nature I will completely miss from Arizona: desert views and rocky mountains. I’ve had a love affair with South Mountain over these last few years and saying goodbye has been difficult. This weekend I went out with a friend to run it one last time. My husband and I want to cram in one more hike if we have time once we’ve wrapped up the last of our packing. But this pristine playground will no longer be a few miles from our front door.

I took a few photos during yesterday’s run, it was a perfect cloudy morning.

Hidden Valley, South Mountain

Early morning at South Mountain

The desert has been really good to me. It helped to inspire me to wake up at the crack of dawn for over a year now to get out there and run it. It will be missed, but I am excited to explore new terrain in Austin and elsewhere in Texas!

Like this:

It’s finally happening! Matt got a promotion/transfer with his company and we are moving to Austin, TX. This has been our goal for what seems like forever. It feels unreal that it’s actually happening. Before I moved to Arizona I used to live in Austin. I miss living there. Matt fell in love with it years ago when we first visited the city together. We knew it was the place for us. There’s a handful of cities we’ve talked about over the years that we thought would be a fun, interesting location to live. Unsurprisingly most of the places we like have a much higher cost of living than Arizona which would make it difficult to consider (thankfully, Texas is pretty similar). Being in Austin also means I get to be near my family, who live in Houston (I am SO HAPPY I will just be a car ride from them!!!). The company Matt works for has 2 locations that are in line for his career goals: Austin or Phoenix. We knew we didn’t want to stay here forever, so when this spot became available in Austin it was was a dream come true!

I will miss my desert. I will especially miss South Mountain, my favorite place to trail run. But there are miles and miles of greenbelt and trails where we are going, which just means a different environment in which to hike and run. I know I will always miss SoMo but I am not worried about being able to find new outdoor venues to fall in love with. I am not going to miss the AZ summers, they’re brutal. For several months it’s so damn hot the temperature barely drops even after the sun has set. Texas summers are hot too, don’t get me wrong, but there are cooler mornings and evenings that make it much easier to handle even the hottest days. This has become a bigger concern ever since I’ve been running. This last summer in Arizona was more torturous than previous ones because I knew the only chance I had at running for practically 5 months straight was waking up as the sun rose and being done before it was too high in the sky, to avoid possible heat stroke. There was such a short window to get a run in. But those desert views – I will definitely miss those views.

I am very excited to discover new spots! I already know I love Lady Bird Lake (just called Town Lake back when I lived there), I used to love taking my dog for walks around it. Hell, that was even one of the places I made a few failed attempts at running years ago. I also used to spend time wandering through parts of the greenbelt around Austin, but looking at maps I see there is still so much of it I have yet to see. Austin just has so much for outdoorsy types like myself and my husband, I am ready to explore. If you are familiar with Austin and have any suggestions for great places to run/hike/bike, feel free to add it to the comments!